Oblivion

In 2017, a group of alien invaders called Scavengers attack Earth. Humanity prevails, but the resulting war makes the planet’s surface uninhabitable. The majority of the survivors have migrated to the space station Tet while a few remain stationed in sky towers to service energy harvesting drones. Jack Harper (Tom Cruise) is one such drone technician. Though he has taken his coworker Vika (Andrea Riseborough) as a lover, he is haunted by trace memories of a woman (Olga Kurylenko) from his past. When Jack witnesses the drones behaving erratically, he begins to realize that there is more to his world than he knows.

Oblivion is the brainchild of Tron: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski, and it owes more than a passing debt to his previous film. The nifty “bubble ship” helicopter that Jack pilots is more than a little reminiscent of a light cycle, especially during the film’s chase and combat scenes. Were that the extent of the homage, there would be no qualms raised. Unfortunately, Oblivion has nary an original idea to offer, borrowing shamelessly from everything from Portal to The Matrix to Independence Day. The resulting patchwork plot is as contrived as it is unoriginal.

Though the cast features some big names, they do not exactly elevate the material. Action veteran Cruise does the requisite running and jumping and bleeding and yelling, yet as a protagonist, Jack is merely adequate and not particularly memorable. An enigmatic, poetry-reciting, gun-toting Morgan Freeman is in good form; unfortunately, his screen time is minimal. Kurylenko and Riseborough at least try to give their characters emotional depth, but the roles are thinly drawn and often illogical. Melissa Leo, sporting an unnerving Texas twang, fares the best as Jack and Vika’s mission control.

Disappointing as it may be, Oblivion is rescued from abject failure by quality aesthetics. At times, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful film, and it offers great visual contrasts: the placid sky, the ruined Earth, the white-clad survivors, and the black-armored Scavengers. French electronic band M83, like compatriots Daft Punk before them, delivers an appropriately epic soundtrack.

On a visual level, Oblivion offers enough to sights and sounds to justify its two-hour existence, but its cliché-ridden story will inevitably remind you that you can spend those two hours watching better films.

6.75/10